Islamabad : The Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination (MoNHSR&C), in collaboration with the Pakistan Digital Authority (PDA), has successfully conducted the first two consultative workshops in Lahore under the nationwide Digital Sectoral Plan for the Healthcare Sector.
The sessions brought together health sector leadership from Punjab and a wide group of respected stakeholders to shape Pakistan’s future-state vision for digital health. The first session, on Human Resources for Health (HRH), was facilitated by Prof. Mahmood Shaukat ; the second, covering Maternal, Newborn & Child Health alongside AI, Data & Digital Health, was facilitated by Dr. Naeem Majeed.
The sessions are part of a ten-workshop series spanning Islamabad, Peshawar, Lahore, Karachi, Gilgit and Muzaffarabad. They are designed to build an all-inclusive digital health strategy for the country.
Health is where digital transformation is felt most directly by citizens. Progress rarely comes from working in silos; the more closely the country’s institutions engage, the stronger and more inclusive Pakistan’s digital health foundations become.
Founding Chairman of PDA Dr Sohail Munir has said in this regard, this is precisely how sectoral transformation must be built: co-created with those who will live with the outcome, not handed down from the centre.
He said, Health is a devolved subject; the provinces are co-authors of this plan, not consultees. And the private sector, which delivers so much of the care Pakistanis receive every day, must help design the rails it will run on.
The Pakistan Digital Authority’s role is to convene, set standards, and enable; ownership belongs to the sector itself. He expressed gratitude to the Ministry of National Health Services for taking the lead, and to the Ministry of IT and Telecomm for its steadfast support of this agenda.
He has invited provincial health departments, hospitals, HealthTech innovators, academia, and development partners to bring their sharpest thinking to this table.
